The palace made it official

Well. By the time most of you read this I will have claimed my free cup of coffee at Starbucks. Because unless you were under a rock yesterday and watching nothing but the Home Shopping Network or are like my dad and only read “real news”, then you know that the palace made the official announcement that Princess Kate is expecting a baby.

Apparently they weren’t planning to announce it this soon, but she had to be hospitalized because she has Hyperemesis gravidarum. Which is a fancy way of saying she needs to carry around a yuck bucket since she has severe morning sickness. And that just goes to show that being a princess may get you beautiful clothes and fantastic hair, but at the end of the day princesses throw up just like the rest of us. The difference is they can wear a diamond tiara while they lay on the bathroom floor and pray for mercy.

Speaking of being sick, Caroline started running a fever last Thursday night. She came out a few times to tell me her stomach didn’t feel good, but I wasn’t convinced it wasn’t just a stalling technique. But then I laid down next to her and realized her legs were on fire. Her forehead rarely gets warm when she runs fever, but her legs become some sort of furnace. Like they could heat a small country.

And so we spent all of Thursday night and most of Friday trying to keep her fever down until it finally broke for good late Friday afternoon. She was scheduled to play in a soccer tournament on Saturday and I thought it wasn’t going to happen, but she popped out of bed early Saturday morning ready to go. In case you’ve never noticed, kids are resilient.

We had three soccer games and so most of Saturday was spent driving back and forth to the soccer fields. I did manage to watch half of the first quarter of the SEC Championship game between games, but other than that the big game for me involved nine-year-old girls and a soccer ball.

Most of Sunday was spent recovering from Saturday.

And that’s what has been going on here.

It seems like there should be more, but I spoke earlier this evening at my church and I think my brain is tired. So I’m going to head to bed. And dream about my free grande latte.

Ditto! Word for word! Exactly the same! I was at the zoo with my 3 adult children and two baby grandsons when my daughter told me. I blurted out that Big Mama wins a cup of coffee! Not what my daughter was expecting me to say. 🙂

Congrats on your latte. But, what the heck? Three soccer games in one day? They really make them play 3 games in one day? That you have to go to? And watch? Must be why I am not a soccer mom. You totally deserve your latte, Mel. Totally.

I also had severe morning sickness all through both of my pregnancies, so I can speak with authority when I say that the princess has probably “christened” the bathroom of every eating establishment she has frequented the last few weeks in the greater London area. I myself “christened” more bathrooms than I care to remember in the greater Houston area. So clearly we are the same.

All that to say that surely any woman that happened to be in a public bathroom at the same time as her had guessed about her pregnancy, so I doubt that they could have kept it a secret much longer. Reading in the newspaper that she’s in the hospital for hyperemesis gravidarum sounds much more graceful than reading in a tabloid, “I heard the princess yakking in the stall next to me!” Or am I over-thinking this? 😉

This is too funny. I wonder how many responses of “Big Mama wins her cup of coffee” were spoken after the news of Princess Kate’s pregnancy was announced. I too had that same exact thought when I found out. Congrats.. Make it a trenta!

I know, I heard this morning about her hospitalization. Poor thing. Hyperemesis is no joke, I had a nurse at my house every other day to stick me with a needle so I could hook up my anti-nausea pump that I carried around for 6 months.

Erica, I’m an HG survivor, too. I got to the point at about 11 weeks where I need not just IV fluids, but nutrition through a tube. It’s so sad to see anyone go through this… at least with Kate, it brings awareness to this very mysterious and misunderstood condition. Hugs!

Well, I wasn’t watching Home Shopping Network so I must have been under a rock. . .but, congrats on your latte!

For some reason I can’t link today (probably a side effect of being under a rock) but have you seen the youtube video of Christmas lights that are a tribute to Johnny Football? An aTm fan decorated their house and synced the lights to the song Johnny Be Good. Its a must see for all you Aggies!

I wonder if it makes it any easier to cope with the barfing with a crown? I wore a “Mommy crown” one day to make a point and cleaning the toilet was easier… I don’t get it but it worked. (ps – my daughter read this in a Baby Blues treasury… I didn’t think of it myself.)

That being said – as a woman who was so sick with my 1st child, I wish her well.

Also – good to know it’s not my children who are champion stallers… Mine are crazy good.

And it’s it weird about the forehead/fever thing? My daughter is similiar, but it is her hands that get fire engine hot and her forehead…not so much. Except last Saturday when she also ran a fever (102) and was about to burn up everywhere. And now she’s fine.

Hyperemesis is no joke and it isn’t morning sickness. From the smell of an onion getting to me from a mile away, wanting to terminate the pregnancy, to wanting to terminate my own life. It was by far the most difficult time of my life. I threw up upwards of 50 times a day (that’s not a typo it’s 5-0) I felt physically, mentally and emotionally ill, isolated and misunderstood. I felt an enormous amount of guilt for being a burden on my family, particularly on my extremely helpful and understanding husband. But worse, I felt like I was the worst mother in the world to my daughter, I was hospitalized for days, in and out every other day for IV fluids and just had her parked in front of the TV all day long. I felt like I was dying. It lasted until the instant my baby was born. It was difficult for me to bond with my baby while pregnant and felt guilty about that as well…
I’m fortunate to say my babies (2 out of 3) and I survived. In 2010 I miscarried and even though it wasn’t confirmed it was because of HG, I am positive it was, because I was in a ketonic state, having lost almost 20 lbs. of my already small body. It couldn’t support the life inside of me.

i’m so sorry, cindi. i’m so sorry for your loss.
but i’m glad you’re healthy now, and thank you for sharing, and educating us who’ve been blessed with run-of-the-mill pregnancies.
praying for all parents, because we’re all learning as we go, and some have to handle situations i can’t fathom.

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Who is Melanie?

My name is Melanie and, in some strange twist of fate, I’m also known as Big Mama because I started this blog in July of 2006 when my daughter, Caroline, was not quite three years old and I was in the process of convincing her that BIG girls use the potty and BIG girls don’t have pacifiers, thus she thought BIG was the highest compliment in the land and began referring to me as BIG MAMA.